RETROSPECTIVE

haven’t checked to see how many years I’ve been writing a retrospective on the last day of the year, but it’s been several and it’s always fun to go back and look at what I was reading and watching and listening to. My goals don’t seem to change much, but that’s okay.

Debbie, Camilla and I had a sleepover a couple of nights ago, which was very fun (and caused my daughter envy) at which we just talked and ate and watched movies. We saw Bright Star and The Adjustment Bureau, both of which were excellent in very different ways. I also raided Debbie’s huge DVD closet and borrowed a bunch of stuff: 7 movies and all 10 seasons of Friends, lots of which I have never seen.

I have also made a project list that is quite long and intimidating and includes lots of closets to clean out and other organizing. I made a start with the first one: organize the piles and boxes of cables that were in the computer room closet. Anders has to help with this one since I don’t know what most of them ARE, and he’s already gone through about half of them and thrown away a huge pile. He’s also in the middle of his own end of year project: cleaning out the garage and finally finishing the storage room out there! Yay!

Family & Personal Highlights of 2013

• Lots of work travel for me including trips to Italy, Spain, France, Singapore and the US
• A week with my mom and sister in Michigan
• Karin’s soccer trip to Dallas and a new (very nice) boyfriend
• Family vacation in England including a week on a canal longboat, Stonehenge, London and Harry Potter Studios
• 6 months off soda! (though I wish I felt it had made a difference)
• Mad Men and The West Wing marathons with Martin
• Anders’ 25-year gold watch from Tetra Pak
• Martin winning the BIG Challenge English test and getting into the IB program for high school
• Mom’s holiday visit here
• John & Simone’s new baby boy!

In 2013, I ONLY read 93 books, the lowest number since I started keeping track, but I did read several really BIG ones, haha!

Best Books of 2013 (in no particular order and not including re-reads)

• Winter of the World by Ken Follett
• Bellman & Black by Diane Setterfield
• David and Goliath by Malcolm Gladwell
• The Last Runaway by Tracy Chevalier
• Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Days of Blood and Starlight by Laini Taylor
• Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach
• Spilling Clarence by Anne Ursu
• The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
• City of Dark Magic by Magnus Flyte
• Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
• The Brides of Rollrock Island by Margo Lanahan
• The Mad Scientist’s Daughter by Cassandra Rose Clarke
• The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey

Again, with the not keeping track of movies I’ve seen during the year, which doesn’t matter as a lot of movies I see in the course of a year are old ones, though I AM looking forward to The Hobbit 2 on New Year’s Day!

Best Musical Discoveries in 2013

• Minnie Driver
• Amy Stroup
• The Green Children
• Scars on 45
• Walk Off The Earth
• Birdy
• Ruut
• Maria Mena
• Poema
• Gabrielle Aplin
• Tegan and Sara

Some manageable goals for 2014

• Continue the no-soda plan until end of June reevaluation time
• WALK, DAMMIT, and lose 20 pounds
• Get through the project list
• BIG Birthday Trip to San Diego SOMEPLACE in August

We will be at our friend’s Barbara & Paul’s house tonight for New Year celebrations and we have firecrackers and rockets and sparklers to take with us. Happy Happy New Year!

(Drop cap courtesy of Jessica Hische’s Daily Drop Cap)